CHAPTER 396

AGE OF EMPYREAN (V)

Even Lino had to momentarily stand in awe and tepidity beneath the crushing cascade of rainbow-dyed attacks headed his way. They wholly blanketed the sky from all eight ends, illuminating the world as though the sun itself had descended upon it. Colors blinded him temporarily as he felt his Will tremble, causing him no small amount of shock. Heaving his head up, rather than retreating, however, he merely grinned as he reached into his void world and took out one of the few items he had prepared for today’s battle -- a massive, tree-toppling shield.

It reached the height of three men and width of at least six, pushed out at the center, with a dent sporting a swirling vortex being the ending route of all, glimmering arrays on its surface. It had strong, silver, metallic sheen with occasional flashes of purple, its edges sharp and thick, narrowing toward the bottom end.

[Aegis of Destruction -- Continental]

Level: 6000

Requirements: 1,000,000 Strength, Path of Destruction

+10,000% to ALL Defenses for the first 10 seconds after taking the Aegis out; activates only once every 4 hours

+800% to ALL Base Defenses

+90% Immunity to Control Effects

8% chance to reflect an attack completely

18% chance to absorb the attack and store it into the Eye

26% chance to diminish the effects of the attack by 80%

42% chance to decrease attack’s damage by 40% on impact

6% chance to both absorb and reflect the attack at the double rate; can happen only once every minute

8% (+8% per attack) chance to increase Base Defenses by 60% for 10 seconds; stacks refresh after either not taking an attack for 3 seconds, or obtaining Defense

1% chance to ignite wearer’s Will, making the wearer entirely invulnerable to ALL damage for 3 seconds; refreshes after 1 hour

Special Effect [Serpentine] -- activate the effect through Will; for the following 15 seconds, ALL projectile attacks against the shield slither against its surface and miss the mark. 1% of the Damage is stored into the Eye

Special Effect [Irrefragable Domain] -- sacrifice 20% of Vitality to form a Domain within the surrounding 4 miles for 2 minutes. ALL attacks on the wearer within the Domain deal 10% of their Damage, all sub-effects of the attacks are nullified, successful direct blocks result in Absolute Reflection on the attack. 2% of all Damage traded within the Domain is stored inside the Eye.

Special Effect [The Eternal] -- should wearer ever fall to 1% of their Vitality, this effect will activate automatically; the wearer becomes immune to ALL Damage, Statues and Control Effects for 1 minute. Vitality is immediately restored to 100%. Damage dealt by the wearer is decreased by 60% for the Duration. Speed (any Movement) is increased by 6000% for the first 5 seconds of the effect. The wearer becomes invisible to ALL scouting mechanisms. The 1% of Vitality is stored as Damage inside the Eye.

Special Effect [Eye of Extinction] -- can only be used when Damage stored is at the very least 3x the wearer's total Vitality. Channel all stored energy into the shield's Eye, forming a homing beam that locks onto a single target and hits them regardless of the methods they may use to dodge. The damage cannot be blocked, evaded, nullified or diminished. If the target is killed, 80% of their Vitality stat is refunded into the Eye as Damage, while the remaining 20% is transferred directly to the wearer as a permanent bonus.

Note: Pinnacle of Continental-tier items, borne into the world to shock and awe those who may ever stand before it.

It was Lino’s second greatest direct creation to date, just behind the Cube. The sheer number of basic stats is enough to terrify anyone, not to say anything of the abundance of Special Effects that seem entirely handcrafted for him and him alone. It virtually made him immortal for a brief period of time, which is exactly what he needed right now.

Right around the same time, he also donned the [Heaven-cast Armor Set], something he avoided doing for a long while now as to not expose its existence to the world -- at least its existence in the current form. Nearly six months ago, he had finally managed to infuse the Titan Heart with it, in addition to unlocking its last stat line after becoming Void Titular. Both of these things combined were enough to do something even Lino was thought impossible -- push the Legendary-tier item above the cliff and into the Continental Realm of things.

The armor maintained its cyan sheen, in addition obtaining a faint presence of deep gold at the thick edges. It appeared somewhat ordinary, yet at the same time extremely flamboyant due to different patterns and designs orbiting its thick, shimmering surface.

[Heaven-Cast Armor Set -- 8/8 -- Continental Unique]

Level: 6,000

Requirement[1]: 1,500,000 Strength

Requirement[2]: Art

Requirement[3]: Primal Qi (any form)

Requirement[4]: Resistance to ‘Fear’

Requirement[5]: Bloodbound

Defense: 41,655,920

Durability: 60,000,000 (damage shared between all individual parts)

+950% to ‘Base Strength’

+1350% to ‘Base Defense’

+1500% to ‘Base Vitality’

+300% to ‘Base Damage’

+400% to ‘Base Resistances’

+150% to ‘Status Resistances’

+50% to ‘Elemental Affinity’

+180% to 'Elemental Resistance'

+40% to Attack Speed

+3% to 'Void Affinity'

[1] -- immediately heal all wounds, physical and mental -- costs 30% of total Qi reserves; recharge 5 days

[2] -- gain temporary, Absolute Resistance to all control effects; 60% chance to reflect the effects back onto the caster; duration -- 30 seconds, recharge time 12 hours

[3] -- gain 1% base Attack Speed for every non-Body Cultivator enemy present on the field (stacks up to 80%)

Special Effect [Ironborn] -- 20% of incoming ‘Damage’ can be stored, up to Strength*30, which can be used to enchant any and all attacks

Special Effect [Heaven’s Son] -- Gain bonus +40% to ALL Stats per an enemy combatant no weaker than 50 Levels; stacks up to 25 enemies

Special Effect [Master of Void] -- mark up to 10 items in your possession; regardless of where they are, you can summon them back into the void in your possession

Special Effect [Legend] -- your Will is exceptionally strengthened when in an unfavorable situation; backlash effects from everything reduced by 50%, Qi expenditure reduced by 50%, chance to inflict Fear-related effects on the enemies through Will alone

Special Effect [Hell-Forged] -- each time the Wearer survives overwhelming odds, increase all Base Stats by 10%; stacks infinitely and persists even when the Armor Set isn’t worn

Special Effect [Defiance] -- Ignore ALL innate suppression from Realms and Levels; gain bonus 5% to ALL Stats for every 100 Levels of difference (if against multiple combatants, only the strongest is counted)

Special Effect [Baptized in Flames] -- Charging a powerful strike triggers the Heaven's Might stored within the armor; for each 1,000,000 projected points of damage, increase the end result by a double

Special Effect [Heaven's Chosen] -- Standing alone against an army exponentially increases one's prowess; Armor's Base Stats doubled, wearer's Base Stats increased by 80%, bonuses from other items increased by 40%

Special Effect [Divine] -- Cannot take more damage than 10% of wearer's Vitality; for 100 Vitality damage, wearer's Strength and Speed are increased by 2%, up to 4,000%

Note: An evolved Creation, infused with one of the last remaining Titan Hearts, surpassing its own innate limits and reaching the Continental prowess that escaped it previously.

Though backed up by two Continental-tier items, both perfect for his current situation, he still felt it. Despite the fact his Defense reached nearly a billion altogether, he still felt it. Even after having all of the Armor's passive increases activated due to being surrounded by a sea of people, he still felt it.

It was a barrage unlike any other he dealt with in his life. Hundreds... thousands... hundreds of thousands of attacks landed in succession against the shield’s thick surface, causing explosion after an explosion to bellow out into the sky. His tiny figure, despite the massive wings, could not be discerned inside the blasting array of colors and smoke that surrounded him.

The pressure that could not be quantified into words pressed against his arm and chest as he was pushed back from the sky toward the earth. His left arm, which held onto the shield, was cracked repeatedly as he shoved every ounce of Qi into it for recovery. Even with repeatedly fluttering his wings to combat the pressure, he still fell down like a star from the sky, leaving behind a trail of blood and smoke.

Barely a few seconds after the attacks landed against the shield, he crashed into the city down below, surrounded by thousand of exploding blasts of light. Buildings turned to ash as shockwave blast outward in a ring-like fashion, leveling everything in the surrounding tens of miles.

The crater itself wound up being over ten miles deep and three times as wide, black soot and smoke dousing it. His tattered body was buried underneath hundreds of tonnes of debris as he cracked a bitter smile. That was awfully close... his Vitality, which totaled to over a billion with all the bonuses added, had fallen down to measly 4%. That crescendo of attacks was most-likely enough to kill 99,99% of cultivators in the world, but he managed to survive. He could have lowered the impact somewhat if he desired, by simply activating shield's active effects, but he wanted to see his limits. How much could he take directly without breaking? The answer? A lot. He doubted there was a single soul out there, whether it be Dragons, or the high-end Descenders, who could replicate the attack he just took all on their own.

That thought calmed him; as long as no one was able to take him out in a single attack, it meant that he could put up a fight.

Meanwhile, those above him celebrated -- most of them did, anyway. Nearly everyone didn't even think anyone could survive that, let alone come out of it ready for any sort of a feud. However, a few knew better.

Erebus stared at that crater with a broken heart; he, too, gave all he had in that moment, as did everyone else. But... it wasn’t enough. They didn’t manage to kill him. Despite the anger and fury that commanded their Wills beyond their capacities, they failed. How high are his defenses?, he pondered inwardly. No... how high is his Vitality?

He shuddered at the thought, as he was certain not even the old, body-cultivating Monsters with over a billion years of accumulation had as much as he did at that moment. He didn’t despair for too long, however; the plan was never to kill him, but to cripple him, and that plan was still in action. Even if they failed to kill him, it wasn’t as though he could simply shrug something like that off and fight like nothing happened -- not even if he was the Empyrean. Certainly... he thought, yet, in his heart, he couldn’t be absolutely sure. Twice now the Empyrean had managed to break his conviction -- twice in succession. He felled Gaia... and withstood Wrath of her Children, one after another. Though he may have earned himself ire of everyone, living and dead, he didn’t seem the type to care. If he could truly wrestle out of that debris and simply resume fighting as though nothing had happened... Erebus, once more, dreaded the thought.

He didn’t wish to fight -- yet he had no choice. It was the Mother’s, and more importantly, his Writ’s direct orders. If it was up to him, he’d simply let the Empyrean run himself into an early grave. Yet, here they were now, having poked the hornet’s nest unnecessarily. No, he shook his head. We will win. We have to. We cannot allow him to sully our plans any longer.